Album: Miki Berenyi Trio - Tripla

I saw the Miki Berenyi Trio play a warmly received sold out set at the Lexington last autumn, at which many of the songs now coming out on Tripla ("three" in Hungarian) had their live previews, alongside a few from the Lush years – the likes of “Kiss Chase” and “Ladykillers” – and Piroshka, the four-piece that emerged briefly from the ashes of the 2016 Lush reunion.

Berenyi has since written a superb memoir (Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me from Success), looking back at her idiosyncratic – at times traumatic – family life and history, as well as her trajectory from zine-making teen music obsessive to performer, singer, songwriter and red-haired icon of the Nineties music scene (sans Britpop cliches).

At the time Lush were filed under the moniker "shoe-gaze" which was drawn not from contemplating one’s shiny new Clarks footwear so much as the image of a young William Burroughs zonked out on Eukodol, the infamous Nazi opiate, in a room in 1950s Tangiers. Apparently shoe-gaze (if not Bill Burroughs) is big in introspective Gen Zed circles. While the audience of the Lexington seemed to be drawn more from original 1990s gig-goers, Tripla’s mix of catchy choruses and reflective lyrics and settings may well draw new and younger ears looking to form a dream-pop syndicate. 

From the dance beats, synths and fuzzy guitars of the lead single and opener,”Eighth Deadly Sin” through “Vertigo”'s insomniac thoughts in solitude to the fuzzy, splashy guitars and soundscapes of “A Different Girl”, it’s a set that draws on a kind of electronica that’s not exactly nostalgic, but not quite from this time either. And with Berenyi’s coolly collected vocals, it all makes for a mature and lived-in dream pop album that addresses some of the nightmare states we are all living through, one way or another.

“Big I Am” is a highlight, a cutting down to size of an all-too-familiar figure stalking the socials of the modern body politic, while the rockier “Hurricane” kicks off with some outlandishly stoned electronics that put you in mind of the legendary VCS3 synths of mid-Seventies Hawkwind freakouts, or at least 'ole Bill Burroughs staring fixedly at his shoe.

With three songs from each of the members – Berenyi, KJ Moose McKillop and bassist Oliver Cherer – there’s depth and breadth, lyrically and sonically, to Tripla that makes for a dream shared, rather than forgotten on waking. They’re playing a launch gig tonight (4 April) at Rough Trade East, before an extensive UK tour through May and June. So seize your chance to experience the power of three.

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